Unexpected Connections

Films are for me, beyond a great passion, a permanent place of remembrance, a source of inspiration and pleasure. I saw so many films in my youth, all in the cinema, because back then, far back in time, there was no other possibility. Maybe that's why I paid so much attention to films and as a result, I find that I remember bits and pieces, big or small parts or just an image, of films I watched 50 years ago.

An incident during yesterday's walk in the park near my house reminded me of a movie, not a masterpiece... a psychological thriller, implausible and a bit scary, The Mothman Prophecies. A 2002 film starring Richard Gere. A film that is hard to remember, hard to recount, and obviously I won't attempt to recount it now. I remembered a line from this film (I remember it roughly but I'm sure you'll get the point):

"If a butterfly moves the air when it flies in Tokyo then something will happen in Paris".

Even by such a great exaggeration he meant that things, events, have a connection between them. An action in one place can cause an event in another place, seemingly unrelated.

Yesterday morning, while I was walking in the park near my house, I saw a strange insect, the like of which I have never seen before, fall on the path. It fell with its wings on the ground and seemed to be dead. I wanted to pick it up with my hand and then the insect suddenly vibrated, the vibration of its wings causing a loud and sharp sound. I got scared and dropped it from my hand. That's when I understood what the insect was.

Cicada!

_{The cicadas are a superfamily, the Cicadoidea, of insects in the order Hemiptera (true bugs). They are in the suborder Auchenorrhyncha,[a] along with smaller jumping bugs such as leafhoppers and froghoppers. The superfamily is divided into two families, the Tettigarctidae, with two species in Australia, and the Cicadidae, with more than 3,000 species described from around the world; many species remain undescribed.
Cicadas have prominent eyes set wide apart, short antennae, and membranous front wings. They have an exceptionally loud song, produced in most species by the rapid buckling and unbuckling of drumlike tymbals. The earliest known fossil Cicadomorpha appeared in the Upper Permian period; extant species occur all around the world in temperate to tropical climates. They typically live in trees, feeding on watery sap from xylem tissue, and laying their eggs in a slit in the bark. Most cicadas are cryptic. The vast majority of species are active during the day as adults, with some calling at dawn or dusk. Only a rare few species are known to be nocturnal.Source}

Cicada is an insect that I associate with the image of summer. I still remember from my childhood the loud sound we used to hear on long summer days. I didn't know who made that sound. It wasn't until a few years ago that I googled and learned about cicadas.

I thought these insects were specific to warmer, Mediterranean climates. Now I have proof that cicadas also live in my country, Romania, and of course in Bulgaria, where I used to go in summer to the sea and where I also heard their high-pitched sound.

I like the sound the cicadas make. Just as snowdrops are the harbingers of spring, so cicadas are the harbingers of summer. When I begin to hear the constant, uninterrupted sound made by perhaps thousands of cicadas, I know that the sea, another passion of mine, is near.

I first wrote about that film, The Mothman Prophecies, to get to that saying about the connections between seemingly unrelated events. Because I wanted to write about connections. I want to talk about the connections our brains make... Because when I saw the first cicada my brain instantly made a connection with an event from another walk, taken last year in Balchik, Bulgaria, by the Black Sea.

It was an evening walk when I came across an insect I knew existed but had never actually seen.

Praying mantis

_{The European mantis (Mantis religiosa) is a large hemimetabolic insect in the family of the Mantidae ('mantids'), which is the largest family of the order Mantodea (mantises). Their common name praying mantis is derived from the distinctive posture of the first pair of legs that can be observed in animals in repose. It resembles a praying attitude. Both males and females have elongated bodies with two pairs of wings. The most striking features that all Mantodea share are a very mobile, triangular head with large compound eyes and their first pair of legs (the 'raptorial legs'), which are highly modified for the efficient capture and restraint of fast-moving or flying prey.Source}

I've read and watched various documentaries about Praying mantises, but I've never seen one up close.

Once again the brain made a connection. The moment I decided to tell about this insect I met on an evening walk in Balchik!

I have made, since 2017, three holidays in Greece, on the island of Thassos. I hoped to meet a Praying mantis there. That didn't happen, instead, I took a lot of photos. A few months ago I was looking for some photos of flowers in Thassos. Then, three years after that photo was in my archive, I noticed something strange in it, something I had not seen before, although I had seen that photo many times. I also love flowers specific to the Mediterranean climate and I saw this shrub with strange flowers.

I also took close-up photos, to show the flowers better...

Closer...

And closer (actually a crop of the photo!)...

And so appeared before my eyes this well-made and fat Greek Praying mantis. Gorgeous and so well camouflaged by its leafy appearance!

Something I didn't see in reality, although I was 10 cm away from it, I could see it afterward from the photos and especially because I enlarged the images successively by cropping.

In the last century, this enlargement was much more difficult...
Photography was done with film, which was developed and then enlarged, and transposed onto photographic paper. Then a portion of the photograph was photographed and in this way, the image was enlarged. The process was called "blow-up"!

Obviously, the brain made a new connection leading me to my favorite movie of all time called Blow-up!

Blow-up!

A film about a fashion photographer in 1960s London, a film about the emancipation of young people in London, about the stars of that time, photographers, fashion designers, painters, and pop music.

The plot of the film also started with a walk. Photographer Thomas took a walk through the park taking random photos.
After developing the photos he noticed something strange at a bush and through successive enlargements he sees a gun and then he sees a dead body. So he photographed a murder without knowing it...

_{Blow-Up (sometimes styled as Blowup or Blow Up) is a 1966 mystery thriller film directed by Michelangelo Antonioni and produced by Carlo Ponti. It was Antonioni's first entirely English-language film that stars David Hemmings alongside Vanessa Redgrave and Sarah Miles. Also featured is 1960s model Veruschka. The film plot was inspired by Julio Cortázar's short story "Las babas del diablo" (1959). The story is set within the mod subculture of 1960s Swinging London,[4] and follows a fashion photographer (Hemmings) who believes he has unwittingly captured a murder on film. The screenplay was by Antonioni and Tonino Guerra, with English dialogue by British playwright Edward Bond.[5] The cinematographer was Carlo di Palma. The film's non-diegetic music was scored by jazz pianist Herbie Hancock, while rock group the Yardbirds also is featured.Source}

The unexpected connection is that we started with one film and ended with another, with no similarities between them, made at a great distance of time between them (over 40 years).

And yet, my brain keeping all this information and memories, made a connection possible!

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